1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to pluggable transceiver modules used to connect serial cables to electronic components.
2. Description of the Related Art
In high speed communications today the most common communication media are fiber optic cables. Various switches, routers and the like are electronic devices which form the various networks. An electro-optical converter or transceiver is necessary to convert between the light on the fiber optic cables and the electronic signals in the various devices. For ease of use and interoperability, standards have been developed such as the SFP or SFP+ specifications for the transceiver modules. Because they are standardized, SFP and SFP+ modules are available from multiple vendors. In general, an SFP or SFP+ module performs the optical electrical conversions with various detectors, amplifiers and emitters necessary to perform the desired function. The control elements inside the modules are just those necessary to perform the conversion functions, such as variable resisters to use to control amplifier gains and the like.
At the high communication speeds today, such as 10 Gb/s, it has become very difficult to detect and debug errors. This is aggravated by the fact that modules such as SFP modules provide only rudimentary diagnostic outputs, such as transmit faults and loss of signal. Therefore it is common when errors are being detected to replace first the module and then the particular circuit board that contains the module, potentially at both the transmitting and receiving ends. As a result, diagnostics relating to errors are very time consuming and prolonged as it requires effectively blindly replacing modules and components until the problem is fixed.
In addition, various new techniques, such as encryption and compression on particular links, are desired but to provide those capabilities, new switches and the like must be purchased and installed, resulting on large costs to employ the techniques. It would be desirable to be able to use existing switches and the like and still use the newer techniques.